Ted Cruz Restates Pledge to Immediately Defund PP If Elected

Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz reiterated to Newsmax TV on Tuesday his vow that he would immediately defund Planned Parenthood if he were elected to the White House next year.

"Absolutely," the first-term Texas senator said in response to the question from "The Hard Line" host Ed Berliner. "I will instruct the United States Department of Justice to open an investigation into Planned Parenthood and to prosecute any and all criminal violations by that organization."

"It is a federal crime," he added. "It is a felony to sell the body parts of unborn children. What a sad statement about our government today that nobody in the media, nobody in the political world, thinks there's any chance whatsoever — zero chance — that the Obama Justice Department would even investigate Planned Parenthood because they're a political ally of the president.

"It doesn't matter that they're caught on tape admitting to multiple felonies. The administration of justice should be blind to party and ideology and should follow the laws and the Constitution.

"One of the things I intend to do as president is bring back integrity to the U.S. Department of Justice," Cruz said.

The senator slammed Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton for attacking GOP candidates for using the term "anchor babies" regarding illegal immigrants, but saying nothing about the aborted fetuses whose body parts are being sold by Planned Parenthood.

"What is offensive is watching those videos and I want to encourage every American watch those videos," he told Berliner. "They are horrifying and Secretary Clinton ought to be asked, does she think those unborn children who the Planned Parenthood senior officials are laughing, are caught on tape selling the body parts of.

"In this latest video, they describe a little boy who after an abortion his heart was still beating and yet the technicians took scissors and cut the child's face open to remove his brain, to sell it for profit," Cruz said. "That is inhuman."